St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-27
THE LIEN LAW.
The Great Questions Involved In Its
Construction.
LAWYERS AND THE KNIGHTS
The Latter Against the Former, and
Yet the Former Friendly to the
Knights.

There is provision in the fundamen-
tai law of the Knights of Labor which
declares that lawyers shall not be eligi-
bic to membership because they are not
producers. This has been matter of
considerable discussion among attor-
news. At the recent Press club re-
ception to the members of the bar Hon.
A.. Ankeny brought it up, and spoke
interestingly upon it. Among other
things he said that history shows
that the nOblest reforms in the eleva-
ton of the masses and defending the
rights of labor against the encr0ach-
mentS of capital had been led by law
verS. As rule they were themselves
poor men, and not capitalists. And
their impulses were always OH the side
of the weak. A large proportion of them
was generally to be found in the legis-
lative walls, and their influence gener-
ally shaped legislation. That laws had
often been passed which did not at all
times sufficiently protect men and prop
erty was ewing to the difficulties OF the
subject rather than TO an intention to do
wrong. He gave as an instance the at
temptS which had been made to enact
proper lien laws, and said the only
reason why we don't have them is be-
cause of the inability to properly draw
them, so many principles of law
are involved. In the lien
law. we have first the subject of con-
tracts. a large and important branch of
law which the ableSt judge can rarely
accurately define. ION top of this we
have the subject of real estate which
the lien must attach. Here all the
rights of property are involved. In
deed, they are the fundamental princi-
pies not only of government, but of the
rights of the citizen. Then again we
have in the lien law the subject of rem
edieS, or the enforcement of the claim.
Summing the whole matter up, should
say" ne said, THAT to properly draw
and. enact lien law which will at all
times protect the individual and at the
same time not override the rights of
the many. is work requiring the Serv-
ices of the ablest judges on our bench.
l would give the ordinary man six
months time, a good degree OF
general information, the advantage
of the best law library and
an honest desire to frame a
proper lien law, and even then an ordi-
nary lawyer would knock it out in the
first round. You might as we'll set
hOd-carrier 10 practice surgery, or a
fifth-rate lawyer to edit daily news
paper. as to put the average law-maker
at such work as protecting the rights of
labor by law No, the surest remedy is
not to decry any class, but we ought
rather to thank God for the good and
true men, wherever they may be found,
who join in the general work of i'm
proving society and thus push on the
civilization of the world. But it can't
be done simply by working with the
mouth. The brain, the life, the honor
of the man-that is the standard to be
gagged by, and it matters but little
whether the man be a layman or law
yer. a farmer or a day laborer, he is
alike a producer of something of which
all men may be proud. and which will
rebound to the general good.